Benjamin Parry’s House

Parry Mansion

by Diana Cercone

Say New Hope and most people think of it as the popular tourist town. A dining destination along the scenic Delaware River. Or the picturesque town that’s home to the Bucks County Playhouse where Broadway-worthy plays draw visitors from across the river and from New York to Philadelphia. Then there is its vibrant art scene, upscale shopping and wine tastings, as well as eclectic specialty and antiques shops.

True, New Hope is all of these things. But delve a little deeper and you’ll find a charming town rich with history where you can grab a glimpse into what life was like at the beginning of our nation.

The place to begin with is The Parry Mansion Museum. If you haven’t taken a tour of the mansion, but have been to New Hope, then, you can’t have had missed it. For it’s the elegant Georgian-style mansion on the corner of Main and Ferry streets, opposite the Logan Inn. It’s here where Benjamin Parry (1757-1839), the father of New Hope, made his home. And, some say, Parry marked the real beginning of New Hope.

But, as I was soon to find out, what sets The Parry Mansion apart from other historic homes is that five generations of the Parry family lived here, beginning in 1784 and ending in 1966. This I learn from Deborah Lang, executive director of the New Hope Historical Society (NHHS), Karen Etcoff, NHHS docent coordinator, and Roy Ziegler, NHHS board member, resident historian and author of several books, including “The Parrys of Philadelphia and New Hope,” as we sit in Deborah’s cozy office on the second floor of the mansion.

The New Hope Historical Society bought the property in 1966 from Margaret Parry Lang, Benjamin Parry’s last descendent to live in the mansion. And, thus, saved it from demolition, Roy says. By this time, many of the family pieces of furniture and furnishings had been either given away or sold. Members of the NHHS were at a loss as to how best to furnish it, not to mention funds were practically depleted with the mansion’s purchase. As Providence would have it, notes Roy, a prominent New York architectural and interior designer, Charles Lamar, was visiting one of the NHHS board members at the time and toured the near-empty mansion. His recommendation?

Decorate the mansion to reflect the times of each Parry generation. Brilliant! And that’s exactly what they did—and what you’ll find when you tour The Parry Mansion. Benjamin Parry was born into a second-generation Welsh Quaker family who had settled in Moreland County in 1715 where his father owned large tracts of land and was a successful businessman. One of the businesses he owned was a mill. Parry learned the mill business from his father and, eventually, spent summers working for his father’s good friend, Dr. Joseph Todd, who owned a mill in New Hope (now the site of the Bucks County Playhouse).

Two events collided that sealed Parry’s ties with the town. His father died, leaving him a tidy inheritance and Dr. Todd died not long after. With his knowledge of the mill and his father’s inheritance and wish to help out Dr. Todd’s widow, Parry, then with his brother who also received an inheritance, purchased Dr. Todd’s mill.

One has to assume that Parry was not only smitten with the town, then called Coryell’s Ferry after the family who owned and ran the ferry across the Delaware to Lambertville, NJ, then also called Coryell’s Ferry, but he foresaw its potential in becoming a major economic force in connecting both goods and travelers between New York and Philadelphia. He didn’t hesitate in buying the tract of land across from Dr. Todd’s mill and begin building his home. The impressive mansion was completed in 1787. Shortly, thereafter, he married Jane Paxson. They had four children, a son and three daughters.

In the ensuing years, Parry expanded his mill operations on both sides of the Delaware, including employing most of the townspeople in his Hope Flour Mill (the former Dr. Todd mill)—if not directly, then in offshoot businesses, such as woodworkers, cobblestone brick makers and ironworkers. As he prospered, so, too, did the town. But in 1790, the Hope Flour Mill was destroyed by fire—sending most townspeople, dependent on the mill, into an emotional and economic downward spin.

Parry promised to rebuild within a year. He was as good as his promise, says Roy, and renamed the rebuilt mill the New Hope Mill, hiring everyone back. Adding, Roy says, that “hope” is one of the main tenets of the Quaker religion. So appreciative, the townspeople, a few years later, voted to rename the town New Hope in honor of Parry.

But Parry didn’t stop with the success of his mills. He also built the first wooden covered bridge across the Delaware connecting the two river towns. By doing so he made traveling between Philadelphia and New York much faster and easier. He also invented a process for preserving corn and grain for long distances. This was a tremendous boon to area farmers, explains Roy, for it opened up new markets, including those overseas.

There’s lots more about this amazing, early American, but you’ll just have to find out for yourself when you take a tour. For now, it was time for mine.

There are 11 rooms open on the tour, including five bedrooms on the second floor. Not all the furnishings are authentic Parry possessions. Many of them, however, have been proudly recovered through NHHS acquisitions and generous donations. Those that are not of Parry origin are either authentic period pieces or true reproductions.

Our tour begins on the ground floor with the Colonial Kitchen, c. 1775-1800. Always the favorite room of any house in my book, this one did not disappoint with its many fine examples of furniture by local, colonial Bucks County craftsmen, such as the pine dough-rising trough, settle table, Windsor straight chairs and a baby’s high-chair. Don’t miss the cast-iron bath tub set next to the shelves of pottery

“What better place to take a bath,” Debrorah says, pointing to the large kettles over the walk-in cooking fireplace, “but to where access to hot water was readily available.” Can’t argue there.

From the kitchen we enter into the Empire Dining Room, c. 1825-1850. In contrast to the simple and utilitarian furnishings of the colonial period we left behind, here is a room designed to show off the hard-worn prosperity by the mid-19th century. For example, fitted carpets and elaborate draperies replace the bare wooden floors and naked window frames of the kitchen. The room speaks of refinement and all the amenities of the period, including a painted tin warmer in the corner which would have held hot coals to keep the dinner plates warm.

Adorning one of the walls are two charcoal-wash sketches of Benjamin Parry and his only son, Oliver, at age 26. (Oliver, notes Roy, was quite an accomplished architect and figure in Philadelphia’s history, including building much of the Spring Garden area near the Philadelphia Museum of Art.)

Before leaving the room, take time to notice the large painting hanging above an elegant sideboard of two young girls. The Parrys had three daughters, and I ask Karen if the painting was of two of them. Laughing she explains that, though the painting is not of the Parry children, it is authentic to the period. Explaining, she says, that it was common for painters of the time to have ready-made canvases depicting a scene, especially with children, where the faces would be left blank. The artist made his money by offering to paint the portraits of the household’s children into his painting and, then, selling it to family.

“Every room has a story to tell,” says Ellen. “And each tour is different. It depends on the docent conducting the tour at the time, as well as varying according to the interests of the tour group.” Some visitors come for the history, she says. Others are interested in the artwork or home decorating and furnishings. The docents do their best to point out objects of interest to each member in their tour group, she adds.

And there’s a lot to satisfy just about everyone’s interests. For example, though I knew that tall grandfather clocks were almost always included in fashionable household furnishings of the time, I didn’t know that the clock was often placed on the landing leading to the second floor’s bedrooms. Made sense. As usually the only timepiece in the house, it could be read easily from either floor.

You’ll find this is no different in The Parry Mansion. On the landing leading from The Entrance Hall, c. 1775-1800, you’ll find it: a tall grandfather clock made by Martin Schriener in Lancaster County. Among the artwork you’ll find throughout the mansion are two Edward Redfields as well as portraits of family members, including Oliver’s wife Rachael and Jane Paxson Parry Maule Little painted by John Folinsbee in 1922.

The upstairs bedrooms take you from colonial time, complete with a straw mattress on a rope bed, traveling trunk and foot warmer, to the early 1800s in the Federal Bedroom where the designs of George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton take center stage (not unlike pieces found at Winterthur and Williamsburg). Among the prized pieces in the room none can carry with it a sense of more pride, says Roy, than Benjamin Parry’s “laptop,” which the NHHS was able to recently procure.

Explaining, he says, “It’s Parry’s traveling desk. He had it specially designed with grooves for pens and ink bottles as well as a compartment to hold extra papers.” The trip from New Hope to Philadelphia on Old York Road easily took 10 hours, he explains. Being the prudent Quaker and successful businessman he was, says Roy, Parry did not brook “down time” for idle traveling.

Next is the French Empire (1825-1850) period bedroom, which is noticeably lighter in its decor and furnishings. Make sure to take special note of Parry’s fitted traveling toilet box, complete with glass bottles and vials for colognes and hair pomades as well as a portable wine bottle opener.

The fourth bedroom is of the Victorian Period (1850-1875). It features a Lincoln-period high-baked rosewood bed, a child’s crib and a well-furnished washstand suite. Note the woman’s garments draped over the bedcovers reminiscent of outfits worthy of those worn by Scarlet O’Hara.

The last bedroom, and the smallest, has been decorated as a young boy’s bedroom, c. 1875-1900 with delightful toys of the period, including a red tricycle. Previously the room had been the only indoor bathroom. The Parrys has converted it to one in the early 20th century.

Three more rooms complete the downstairs tour: The Victorian Music Room, The Drawing Room and the former Eastlake Room. I say former for, come this spring, the room will transform into the changing Exhibit space. According to Dee Dee Bowman, chair of the Collections Committee and past NHHS president, the room will be used to showcase exhibits in keeping with NHHS’s education mission. The first exhibit planned, she says, is of objects in the Society’s collection that belonged to the Parry family that have never been on view to the public such as jewelry, furniture, artifacts and objects d’art. Other exhibits planned will feature private collections of interest to the New Hope community or significant to Bucks County or Americana. Some of the exhibits will be guest curated as well. “It will give visitors a reason to keep coming back and explore our rich history,” says Dee Dee.

And this is just but a few of the things you’ll find and stories you’ll hear at The Parry Mansion. For more, you’ll just have to take a tour yourself. Or better, yet, join as a New Hope Historical Society member. Then you’ll know everything—and won’t miss a thing.

For more information about The Parry Mansion or the New Hope Historical Society as well as its 2017 calendar of events, including the popular, Annual Spring Garden Tour, visit newhopehs.org or call 215-862-5652.

Diana Cercone is an area freelance writer who specializes in food, art and travel.

William N. Waite

Worthington and Shagen Custom Builder

Now in our fourth generation as a family business, at Worthington and Shagen Custom Builder we build custom-crafted, extraordinarily detailed, and fine-finished new homes, renovations, restorations, and additions.